At the Nature News blog, Barbara Casassus says that "fallout from the economic crisis continues to cast a pall over the French life-science sector." The number of new firms formed in the country fell 47.8 percent — from 46 to 24 — between 2010 and 2011, and company closures jumped from five in 2008 to 25 in 2011 — an increase of 400 percent — Casassus reports.